LONGMONT -- A Boulder District judge ruled Thursday that prosecutors have cause to pursue a first-degree murder charge against a Longmont man accused of causing a fatal wreck on March 6 while fleeing police.

Defense attorney Jennifer Engelmann had argued that Pablo Bustillos did not show the extreme indifference to human life required for the first-degree murder charge.

Boulder District Judge Roxanne Bailin ruled during the hearing that prosecutors have enough evidence to pursue the first-degree murder charge, along with vehicular eluding resulting in death, vehicular homicide and two counts of vehicular assault. The legal hurdle for prosecutors was low because judges determine at preliminary hearings whether there is probable cause for charges when evidence is taken in a light most favorable to prosecutors.

Bustillos is due to return to court June 18 for arraignment.

Bailin said it was clear that Bustillos intended to elude capture "at all costs." That cost was a 21-year-old man's life.

According to police and prosecutors, Bustillos was driving a green Altima on March 6 when a Longmont Police Officer Randy Herrera saw him cross over the centerline twice and tried to stop his car near Ninth Avenue and Collyer Street. Herrera testified Thursday that he initially used his lights, but turned on his siren when Bustillos sped away. The officer said Bustillos widened the gap between his car and Herrera's, lost control and briefly ran into a yard on the 1500 block of Collyer Street.

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Herrera said he caught up, but Bustillos revved the car and twice lurched toward the patrol car, forcing the officer to move. Then Bustillos sped north on Collyer Street again. Given the speeds and Bustillos' behavior, Herrera said, at 19th Avenue he turned off his lights and sirens and turned down another street that he saw Bustillos turn down because he wanted to end the chase for safety reasons.

"By this point in time I told myself this isn't safe for anyone -- it isn't safe for me, it isn't safe for the residents," Herrera testified.

However, Herrera said, when he stopped at a stop sign at Jewel Street he saw Bustillos' car "blow by" him again at about 65 mph on 17th Avenue, where the speed limit is 35 mph. The officer said he turned onto 17th Avenue and saw dirt and debris kicking up behind the Bustillos' car and that he was either driving in the center turn lane or into oncoming traffic. He said he heard, but did not see, the wreck at 17th Avenue and Main Street that killed 21-year-old Dale Johnson.

"It is almost indescribable, just the sound the cloud of dust that went up," he said, adding that he quickly arrived on the intersection and checked on Bustillos' car to make sure no one tried to flee. Other officers who arrived tried to help Johnson.

Officer Mike Stogsdill testified Thursday that Johnson was driving his white Grand Prix north on Main Street and had a green light entering the intersection when Bustillos' car entered the intersection through a red light and struck Johnson's car. Stogsdill said accident reconstruction estimated that Bustillos' car hit at about 65 mph.

Two women in Bustillos' car were badly injured. Herrera testified that Bustillos said he "f----ed up" and please help the girls. However, Herrera said he could initially see only one woman in the car. The other had been shoved so far under the dashboard during the impact that he couldn't see her at first.

One of the women later told police that Herrera asked them to go for a ride with him, but he said he would not stop if a police officer tried to pull him over. Stogsdill said Bustillos had a warrant out for his arrest on a probation violation.

Defense attorneys, however, challenged the accident reconstruction that had Johnson's car headed north on Main Street through a green light at 17th Avenue. Instead, they suggested that Johnson was headed east on 17th Avenue through the intersection and attempted a left turn onto northbound Main Street, also through a red light.

"When two people run a red light, it doesn't necessarily mean that the person who survives (is) more culpable for the accident that was caused," Engelmann said, arguing that Bustillos' driving did not rise to the legal requirement for extreme indifference.

She added that at least two witnesses believed Johnson had turned in front of Bustillos' speeding vehicle.

"Mr. Bustillos, on the other hand, did not cause Mr. Johnson's car to be at a point in the intersection that it probably should not have been," she said.

Stogsdill testified that a reconstruction of the accident, including matching the two wrecked vehicles together, determined conclusively that Johnson did not turn left in front of the Altima.

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